Dbcember 5, 1902.J 



SCIENCE. 



893 



WEDNESDAY, OCTOBEB 22. 



By the morning session of Wednesday, 

 the attendance at the meetings had become 

 so large that they were held in the lecture 

 hall on the first floor of the museum, where 

 facilities for lantern-illustration, etc., were 

 provided. The meeting began with M. 

 Leon Lejeal presiding, who, after giving 

 some idea of the work done in France, read 

 (in French) his paper on 'The Sartiges 

 Ceramic Collection in the Trocadero Mu- 

 seum.' 



Dr. Franz Boas gave an account of 'The 

 Work of the Jesup North Pacific Expedi- 

 tion, ' and laid before the congress the num- 

 erous and extensive memoirs already pub- 

 lished by the museum and containing the 

 results of some of the investigations. The 

 scope of these fruitful explorations cov- 

 ered both littorals of the Pacific from the 

 Columbia to the Amur, including also a con- 

 siderable portion of the interior of north- 

 western America and northeastern Asia. 

 The work of Bogoras, Laufer, Dixon and 

 Jochelson in Siberia, of Swanton, Smith, 

 Farrand, etc., among the Indians of British 

 Columbia and Alaska, and of Kroeber, 

 Dixon, etc., among those of California, was 

 briefly referred to. A vast amount of 

 osteological, ethnological, linguistic and 

 folk-lore material has been collected, which 

 will undoubtedly throw much light upon 

 the prehistoric and early historic relations 

 of the native races of both sides of the 

 Pacific. Indeed, much seems to be already 

 proved. 



The next paper was by Miss Du Bois, 

 on 'Early Art of the Mission Indians of 

 Southern California,' in which an appeal 

 was made for the rescue of what remains 

 of the 'aboriginal' about these people, who 

 once loomed so large in the primitive his- 

 tory of California. 



The paper of Mr. Bogoras, on the 'Folk- 

 lore of Northeastern Siberia,' was one of 

 the most valuable and most interesting of 



the session. The author, who read in Eng- 

 lish, pointed out the many similarities and 

 identities of general outline and minor de- 

 tail between the legends and myths of 

 northeastern Siberia and northwestern 

 America, which indicated beyond a doubt 

 long-continued inter-communication and 

 exchange of ideas between the two conti- 

 nents, and probably also race-relations of 

 the chief peoples within these areas. Mr. 

 Bogoras 's paper will appear in full in an 

 early number of the Amej^ican Anthropol- 

 ogist. In the discussion Dr. Chamberlain 

 and Dr. McGee took part. The former 

 expressed the opinion that contributions of 

 such solid value as those resulting from the 

 Jesup Expedition should be honored by 

 vote of the congress. On motion of Dr. 

 McGee (who was empowered to word the 

 vote as befitted the occasion) the congress 

 resolved that the work of the Jesup North 

 Pacific Expedition was fully appreciated 

 by the members, who desired to congratu- 

 late Mr. Jesup upon the important results 

 achieved through his generous aid to an- 

 thropological science. 



In his brief paper on 'Some Funda- 

 mental Factors in Social Organization' Dr. 

 McGee illustrated, from his knowledge of 

 the Seri, one of the most primitive groups 

 of Amerinds (the speaker used the word 

 without exciting the protests of his col- 

 leagues) in existence, the development of 

 law, the tool and implement sense, etc. 

 The presence (in its sheath at his side) of 

 a knife obtained from the whites, of which 

 the Seri had so little acquired the 'sense' 

 as to go on tearing meat for food with his 

 hands, was cited to show how slow in 

 growth and how hard to acquire are some 

 of the things we now perform automat- 

 ically. The Seri represent a certain stage 

 of culture in which the race may have been 

 millenniums ago. 



Miss Alice C. Fletcher read a paper giv- 

 ing the details of a 'Star Cult' of the 



